[Livia]

We are a professional couple in our 30s who have found a way to get a few years to sail in about 4 years from now. We are getting geared up to cross some oceans. One of us has a lot of experience sailing coastally, the other is on the giddyup plan and learning. Both of us planning to get bluewater worthy before the big trip.

We are boat shopping. We have narrowed down our search to Tayana 37s and Valiant 40s (although we are happy to entertain suggestions to consider other boats). We desire a passagemaker over a floating condo although we aren't immune to the draw of creature comforts. We are looking for a used boat with a max listing price of 90K USD (and we would hope to do little in the way of refitting if it were in the max budget end). That's not easy to find of course as we are aware but we've consistently found possible boats in that range so we believe it is possible to do.

This price vs. passagemaker crunch has lead us to a number of questions I'm hoping that the expert sailors who read this board might be willing to weigh in on:

How much does hull strength degrade with hull age? How much of the strength can be determined in a survey?

How much of a no-no are teak decks? We've seen articles on removing them - is this possible to do and should one plan to do it?

If a boat has had blister repair work (see Valiant) is this a permanent solution or would you expect to have to have it repaired again?

Are wooden masts a definite no? How much would replacing one likely be?

We are planning to moor the boat on a coast for now while we are landlocked and visit it regularly while we are working on getting her ready for us. Any advice from people living far from their boats? We would probably moor her in the Pacific NW.

Is it normal for a broker to request an escrow deposit (and of what amount) while looking for boats for you?

What are normal insurance costs? We heard 1% of the purchase price but haven't been able to verify that. Anyone have good experiences with an insurance company and/or know of an inexpensive one?

Thanks for your time - Livia